Build of the Week: Mizzix

Thanksgiving was fun, and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. This week I'm tackling a Goblin Engineer. There are two schools of thought when it comes to Mizzix. On the one hand, people look at her ability and think of Storm, using her like a legendary Goblin Electromancer to be able to play multiple spells in a turn. The other school of thought is to use her like a mana battery. Enabling the use of huge spells in what is commonly called Battlecruiser Magic. Battlecruiser Magic goes to the heart of what EDH is all about, so I'll be focusing on the second school of thought. Here is an approximation of a storm list if that is more up your ally.

When thinking of U/R big mana decks, my first thought was the UR Tron lists of original Ravnica that were later ported into Modern. Defined by its enormous plays, the deck leaned on a few monolithic threats to close out a game while drawing absurd amounts of cards with X spells. Mizzix acts like a Thran Dynamo or better most of the time, letting your X spells be larger and larger, while also making playing Clone Legion and Time Stretch in the same turn a possibility.

The last article on Daxos was about determining the overlap between his abilities. This week, the construction is about figuring out how to go from zero to 60 in as little time as possible. Daxos' abilities didn't care about escalation. Every enchantment you played had the same value. Mizzix only rewards you for playing a spell with a greater mana cost than the counters you already have. While this means that the higher cost cards will always trigger her, they won't be getting cheaper very fast. Thus, I broke the spells down into Stages of development.

Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/23-11-15-KKG-mizzix/
Bullshit Scale: 3

Stage 1

Stage 1 is from 0 - 3 counters. When Mizzix first resolves, we have to build our experience counters. Cantrips are beautiful here. Not only do they increase the number of experience counters we have, they also find higher converted mana cost spells from Stage 2 to continue our development. Unfortunately, they stop adding to our experience counters the fastest, so we can't run as many as would be ideal. This is one of the big divergences between  this version and Storm. Storm doesn't need to continually add to the experience, so it plays many more spells in stage one for smoothing.

Stage 2

Stage 2 is from 4 - 6 counters. For the most part, they are draw spells. It's generally at about this point that we are going to start to run out of resources. A strong draw spell will give us more gas, keep adding on counters from Mizzix, and give us more land to more naturally hit our top end if our goblin engineer is incapacitated for some reason. Its important to hold off on casting these until you are at a higher number of experience counters if possible. If you cast these before you have 4 counters, its likely that you are cutting off other spells from being able to add to your experience. There are some tricks here. Gush's alternate cost, Delve, Rebound, Flashback. The point here is to get the maximum amount of value out of the experience trigger as possible, not necessarily out of the cost reduction.

Stage 3

Stage 3 is where the big payoff is for the deck. Mizzix lets us do these things either much earlier or much larger than they were intended to be done. X in an X spell does get reduced by her ability, so she acts like free mana for Stroke of Genius and similar spells. However, X spells clash with Mizzix's Mastery, oddly enough, and Epic Experiment so I tried to keep the X spells to the absolute cream of the crop. They don't clash with Past In Flames. Having two Yawgmoth's Will analogs in a deck with Delve spells is going to cause some complications occasionally, but the effects are so tremendously powerful that its worth the anti-synergy. These spells are how we're most often going to win the game.  That, and Blazes to the dome for 20 or more.

Utility/Protection

While the other instants and sorceries are on a ramping curve, these spells should be cast whenever you need to cast them. A big upside is that they still do add counters. Protecting Mizzix with her trigger condition is just common sense. For the most part, these are ways to protect Mizzix from those who would do her harm, but Reiterate is a solid way of extracting maximum value out of all of our spells. While I didn't include many Earthquakes, you could easily swamp a couple in and have strong board clearing capabilities if you need to protect yourself from swarms of creatures frequently.

Permanents

While the deck is largely spells, having some powerful permanents does help. Crucible is to help ensure we can keep hitting land drops forever, and it interacts well with Command Beacon to keep Mizzix to a reasonable cost in long games. Orrery and Leyline are specifically good since the deck has a lot of powerful sorceries and wants to be able to play Mizzix without fear of sorcery speed removal. Mizzix is generally winning outside of combat damage, and thus Meishin is an excellent card to keep us from getting run over. That we can have 10+ cards in hand from draw spells and Reliquary Tower ensure it can be extremely potent. The original UR Tron lists had monolithic creatures to win the game for them. While we are mostly spells to take advantage of Mizzix, I included Kozilek and Ulamog to supplement our win conditions. They don't need much support, they can win the game on their own, and they also serve as Feldon's Canes. With multiple X draw spells, its possible for the deck to run out of library. Having them as deck cyclers is useful going long without having to include cards specifically for that purpose. You could include Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger if you wanted, but I decided against him or more large threats since they don't have the ancillary function of preventing decking.

Mana

It is imperative that we have Mizzix on the table as fast as possible. The first turn or two should consist of playing some piece of artifact mana, then playing Mizzix, then going through the stages of development. Artifact mana also helps us recast her if she dies, and enable us to cast the top end spells even if she is currently incapacitated.

There are 18 basics in the list, and several U/R dual lands. I tried to keep the selection of colorless lands to a minimum. Mizzix puts more emphasis on colored lands since she reduces generic costs. Its more likely that we'll be short a colored mana to cast a second spell. Command Beacon/Petrified Field/Crucible of Worlds is a trio that should help us keep Mizzix on the table even through heavy resistance. Myriad Landscape transforms into two colored sources and Thawing Glaciers ensures we'll hit lands drops essentially forever. Winding Canyons acts as another Orrery effect for Mizzix, letting us play her with flash gets past a lot of the potential counter play. I'm not sure Academy Ruins is going to earn its spot. Without self-sacrificing artifacts to recur it loses some of its bite. If I were to cut one of these for another colored source, Ruins would be top of the list. The bottom of that list is Reliquary Tower. You draw so many cards from the X spells that stacking this with Thought Vessel is worth the redundancy. Mage-Ring Network also seems like a solid backup plan. Getting bursts of mana lets us at least cast one of the big spells in the absence of Mizzix.

The roads not traveled.
Storm was discussed as a possible alternative, but another potential alternative is to go with an almost mono-color version and include Gauntlet of Power/High Tide effects. That gives you a huge boost to mana, enough to power out the high cost stuff in the deck without Mizzix in play. I chose to avoid that route since it doesn't feel Izzet-y. Having to lean on one land type more than the other also restricts deck building to an extent and I wanted to include things like Insurrection and Molten Disaster.  The plodding pace of 1 land per turn will still get us there, and comes with added benefit of being able to recast Mizzix post Planar Cleansing style sweeper. Lands are the most stable source of mana in EDH, which is why green is so strong.

Without changing anything about the deck's overall construction, there are still many obvious improvements that could be made. Cut for budget reasons were Snapcaster Mage and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy. They are both excellent. Also, given how mana hungry the deck is, Mana Crypt would be an excellent addition. Also, more free counter spells would help, such as Force of Will and Pact of Negation.

Firemind's Foresight/Reset/Turnabout/Mystic Tutor - This package is pretty standard in UR decks as a compact way to generate infinite mana. While the deck would certainly win more with the inclusion of these cards, I don't think it would be better for it. As it stands, the deck is powerful and explosive, but its not consistent enough to be a terror. Including this package or more tutors would push it over the edge into a 4 on the Bullshit Scale.

Mizzix really pushed a different style of deck. With 46 nonpermanents, its going to have challenging draws. It certainly seems like a blast to play though when its firing on all cylinders. I'll be back next week with Meren. Till then, Cheers!

Daxos the Returned.

Daxos has interesting components. The interplay between his experience counters and his active ability is not immediately obvious. He gives you creature token threats, but is asking you to cast enchantments. The cost of the token doesn't change, so you have to cast three or more enchantments for the tokens to become cost effective. Even then, its still a three mana ability, putting it out of range of a use whenever mentality. Its going to take serious commitments to use that ability multiple times in a turn. Thinking about enchantments and creatures, the overlap is in Anthem effects. Enchantments that make your creatures better have been part of the game since Alpha with Crusade. Here, they not only make all of your creatures larger while in play, they also make all of Daxos' tokens larger permanently on cast. To support this direction, B/W tokens is an archetype that pops up now and again, and it similarly crosses heavy token production with strong Anthem effects. Tokens increase the value of the anthems by increasing the number of 'creatures' in the deck without taking up additional slots. The also give you multiple bodies per card, increasing the potency of the Anthems. Its worth noting that in this instance, I'm sticking to permanents instead of playing the traditional Lingering Souls/Raise the Alarm token producers. B/W is much better at permanents, a la Emeria Shepherd, than it is at instants and sorceries. Those one shot token producers are also a bit too low impact in a format like Commander.

The other aspect of the tokens that Daxos produces is that they are enchantments themselves, providing a huge number of triggers for Constellation cards like Doomwake Giant. Unfortunately, Constellation payoffs that are important for EDH largely landed in green with Eidolon of Blossoms and Strength from the Fallen. However, the ones that are relevant are still stronger here than anywhere else. Curiously the card Skybind both exists and received little fanfare. Its a strong card that combines well with the deck's themes, and helps contribute to a sub-theme of creatures that like to be journeyed. The creatures in question tend to make tokens, which ties into the Anthem theme of the deck.

Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/02-11-15-nRh-daxos/
Bullshit Scale: 3

These enchantments are double anthems for Daxos' tokens as long as Daxos is on the battlefield when you cast them. I included True Conviction, even though it isn't technically an Anthem. It gives the creatures enough of a punch to win the game and dominate combat. Marshal's Anthem is fine to cast without kicker, but its main objective is to be kicked 2-4 times. As you'll see later, we can go big with our mana. That's mostly used for Daxos' activated ability, but it comes with some side benefits too, such as including Marshal's Anthem. While Eldrazi Monument isn't an enchantment, +1/+1, flying, and indestructible is an incredibly strong effect. Its worth the inclusion, though you do need to continually be producing bodies for it to be functional. It helps protect against the large number of board wipes you'll see at some EDH tables. The evasion is also important. Not a lot of the tokens naturally fly, and you can still be stymied on the group by an opposing Rhys or Ghave player.

I stuck mostly to white token producers because of Crusade and Honor of the Pure. Bitterblossom isn't worth the trouble since it produces black tokens by the above Anthems. Several of the token producers make soldiers, so I included Captain of the Watch as another card to pump my army. I don't have enough unity to go for something like Shared Triumph, but since Captain makes it's own army, its worth the inclusion. One of the reasons the deck can get away with so few protection effects is that it runs many such 'Army in a Can' variants. Making tokens so quickly is a way to get back on the board in the face of a heavy control deck.

These cards trigger off casting enchantments, or in the case of the Constellation cards, enchantments coming into play. This lines up with our commander's experience condition and thus work along a primary axis of the deck's design. Skybind is great, it gives us repeatable uses of enter the battlefield effects and can reset some of our mana when making tokens with Daxos. If we have permanents that tap for multiple mana, its possible to reset them and make even more tokens the next turn.

Since the deck invests heavily in anthems, it makes sense to eschew instants and sorceries in favor of enter the battlefield effects. These creatures add value to the deck while still operating on the play creatures and attack plan. They give a good range of effects, and can combine with Skybind to make an excellent value train. Many of them help with recovering from removal. As the deck wants to over commit to the board, having ways to pull stuff back from the graveyard will help go long against other decks with substantial removal.

As much as I enjoy niche appeal in cards, sometimes you need to have some good old fashioned wheel greasers. These cards are just tutors, card draw, protection, etc. As an aside, I don't mind tutors in non-combo shells nearly as much. If you aren't using tutors to just win the game, they lose a lot of their bite. I think Dark Prophecy and Necropotence are a little ambitious on the mana, but not too much. Their upside is definitely worth the risk of not casting them immediately. The deck is definitively light on removal. It leans on making a scary board and interlocking effects from enchantments to push the game towards completion and overcome the positions of it's opponents. Below, I describe a different sort of Daxos deck that takes this idea to the extreme. For this deck, I think this section is the most customize-able. Its also an excellent place to put various hate cards like Stony Silence or Painful Quandary if there's some combos or strategies that are prevalent in your play group that you consider to be a problem.

I alluded above to the importance of mana in the deck. Daxos' ability is the late game power of the deck. Being able to make 3 mana 5/5s or better is quite strong. However, that means the deck needs to get Daxos out before casting too many enchantments. A solid ramp amount of ramp ensures keeping Daxos on the table even if we're going to have to recast him 3-4 times. That's a tall order, but not out of reach. It also means that we have a plan for what we're doing with all this extra mana once he's on the table. The deck won't simply waste it. This is similar in approach to Ghave, where any additional mana can be used to fuel an important activated ability. This selection of artifact mana makes a good dent, but they can still destroyed. The real mana power comes from the lands which tend to evade removal even better than enchantments.

These lands give the deck phenomenal late game mana for Daxos. Serra Sanctum in particular is excellent since the tokens themselves are enchantments, constantly building your mana pool by making creatures. Urborg + Coffers is a tried and true approach to generating copious amounts of mana. Of course, its riskier in a deck that only runs 5 or so swamps naturally, but honestly you only need this to come only late in the game, which gives you time to find it once the rest of the game plan is online.

Daxos was fun to build because it went in such an odd direction. This is a deck that I think doesn't have a better potential leader. I don't know what I would do to power this up beyond including some of the more expensive enchantments to lock my opponents out, Nether Void and Chains of Mephistopheles chief among them. Its worth noting that there is a completely different Daxos variant that I believe to be quite strong, though it is terribly unfun. Daxos Punisher is going to terrorize some shop, with all the strong B/W hate cards and the ability to have Daxos be your sole win condition. This is my first draft of it and it is mean.

I'm going to go through all 10 new legends in WUBRG order, marquee cards first, then secondary generals. Next week its Mizzix. Till then, cheers!

Commander 2015 Review

Anya, Merciless Angel

Anya fits well into a R/W aggressive shell. I had a Jor Kadeen deck built in the past which I believe would cover the vast majority of the same space as Anya. However, one of the primary problems with him was that if you went vertical and stacked a bunch of equipment onto Jor, he could be removed. Anya having Indestructible prevents a significant amount of the shenanigans that could stop Jor without specific equipment in play. I do wish she came baked in with a Sulfuric Vortex clause, but she's totally fine as is. You can build a voltron deck around her, and it'll be a decent deck. My chief complaint is that we don't need more voltron generals in W/R. I know their standard isn't card advantage, but it would be cool the have a boros deck that isn't just about attacking. Like, Whenever you gain life, impulse draw. This is a fine legend, but is more of the same.

Arjun, the Shifting Flame

Arjun doesn't fit into many decks. His triggered ability is extremely strong, but requires a specific frame to work. As such, I'm expecting him to primarily be played as a Commander. As a Commander, he works well in a Storm/combo shell due to his unparalleled ability to find cards. Mindmoil is already played in certain situations because it actually draws cards. The same is true for Arjun. He'll be closely related to Niv-Mizzet. However, Niv is more direct, and has more combos associated with him specifically. Arjun is the stronger engine, drawing an absurd number of cards over the course of the game. While it would seem that Arjun gets weaker with every card you play, its trivial to put in cards that draw cards, eg Opportunity, to keep your hand size high. One specific use I can see for Arjun is playing him with Dream Halls to turn off mana and use your insane velocity to find combo pieces.

Daxos the Returned.

Daxos is solid. B/W enchantments is a real thing that has generally added blue through Oloro. This is mostly due to the draw of another color and there not being a sufficient reason to stay in B/W. Daxos combines several different potential archetypes. Obviously he works as a Constellation enabler, but he also functions as a way to convert mana into a supply of fairly large creatures. White has many different Anthem effects that provide a boost while in play and pump up your experience counters. Black provides all the card advantage and has a history of cards like Necropotence. Enchantments that provide cards at a cost. Daxos also works in a stax-like shell with resource denial, leaning on his ability to make tokens to stay ahead of the constrictions. Daxos opens up a significant amount of deck building space that was previously unexplored.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Ezuri piles up experience counters very quickly. Not having a restriction to nontoken creatures means that casting Deranged Hermit gives you 5 experience counters. Every time after the first casting, Ezuri can just act as a sorcery. He follows a similar axis to Edric without being a retread. He's strong, flexible, and interesting. He lets you build vertically as a reward to building horizontally. That kind of feedback loop makes for strong deck construction. He might even be worth including as part of the 99, given the ease he accumulates counters.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas

This is easily the worst of the new legends. Its more R/W voltron, but this just so clearly misses the mark. It only accumulates counters when you cast 5+ mana creatures, meaning that you're not going to get counters quickly. Then, when you jump through the hoops the card asks for, you get +1/+1 for the the general only? If it was an Anthem I'd like it more, but there are just more efficient ways to pump up a general. Sure, the experience counters are more or less permanent, but it just doesn't matter. Kalemne has a set of good abilities, double strike on a Commander is always worth paying attention to, but she isn't surprising anyone. At a base of 4 mana, people are going to be able to react to her. She doesn't protect herself and doesn't have haste. I would love to trade the vigilance or the double strike for haste since that means she could do real damage immediately. I don't think this is a deck worth building, though I do like the direction away from token swarms and toward playing R/W monsters. There are some number of synergies she can exploit with Avacyn or Gisela, but overall this style of deck isn't going to be worthwhile.

Karlov

Karlov is a space that is both new and old. BW life manipulation is not new. See Selena, see the common uses of Vish Kal. However, the theme has never been this explicit and this aggressive. Karlov costing a mere two mana is his largest draw. He also works as a way to transform counters into unconditional removal, which is a big game. It comes at a steep cost, but its not terribly difficult to see situations where giving up the damage is worth handling a threat. Karlov is odd for EDH in that he is far more Spike than traditional commander products. He doesn't reward creativity as much as he does mastering when to use his ability, and he doesn't create memorable moments as much as he is about efficiency. A properly built Karlov is going to be a monster, which is somewhat against the idea of the format.

Kaseto, Orochi Archmage

A snake Tribal commander, Kaseto is decent. He does his thing well, and can even be a legitimate threat with enough mana. I can see him as a role player in other decks, but clearly his place is at the head of the snake. As a commander, Kaseto offers to play nice with on-hit effects. Lots of snakes have an Ophidian-like nature to them so the two dovetail well. Unfortunately, like most of the Commander legends, he was built with a specific need and is somewhat lacking outside of it. I'm certain that once research starts in earnest, there'll be an agreed upon 90 cards that you basically have to play. I like the card, I like that its doing something weird, I just wish it was a bit more open ended.

Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest

What a beating. Maz has a ton of interactions and plays well as a part of the 99 in virtually every g/b deck, while having significant options to build around himself. Imagine him as part of Ghave, now think of him as the Commander for a stax deck. Both are easy to do. Mazirek is best friends with Kothophed, Savra, Smothering Abomination, and that whole continuum of cards. His strength is his flexability and value, his weakness is that for all he does, he is fairly ineffiecient. 6 mana for a 2/2 is abysmal. He gets larger quickly, if he's in a deck that can take advantage of his trigger. Without a specifically capable shell Maz is nothing special, so don't include him without ensuring you can make use out of his ability.

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Meren, like the other head liners, doesn't have a way to fulfill her own exp condition. However, the others, Daxos, Kalemne, Mizzix, and to a lesser extent Ezuri, all need you to hold onto cards in your hand in order to start to get experience counters. Meren wants you to play stuff out before her so that you can have creatures die once she's in play. Consider turn 2 Elvish Visionary, turn 3 Nantuko Husk, turn 4 Meren, eat them, reanimate Visionary. That's not even trying and lines up well. She also doesn't need exp to generate value. Kolaghan's Command has in recent times shown just how powerful Raise Dead can be, and Meren definitively gives value whenever she's cast. She's also a 3/4, which is of no particular relevance expect that its my favorite power/toughness combination.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus

Another RU general that favors a Storm-esque style. Mizzix can also be used as a powerful Helm of Awakening type card. I can see her being used in the capacity where she is played with tons of cantrips to chain lots of spells together, or to make crazy powerful sorceries much cheaper. Things like an overloaded Mizzix's Mastery or Enter the Infinite.


White

Bastion Protector

An adequate way to protect your Commander. Except someone to attack for 4 with their Siege-Gang Commander.

Dawnbreak Reclaimer

In addition to having absolutely gorgeous art, Dawnbreak Reclaimer is a pretty decent card. Sure, its always reanimating the worst creatures in both graveyards, but that's not the worst thing. It can even be used as a political tool. Regardless, if you have a deck packed full of value creatures, its not going to be exceptionally difficult to always be getting ahead with the Reclaimer.

Grasp of Fate

Grasp if excellent removal. It also has a built in political protection. One person getting something of theirs back might be put on the fence about that decision if they knew that it meant giving back a Sylvan Library to an opponent. This will likely wind up in most White decks that don't have a reason to exclude it.

Kalemne's Captain

This card makes no sense to me. The stats are fine and Vigilance is a huge plus in EDH, but the ability actively works against you. White more than any color relies on artifacts and enchantments. It needs them to either modify the game state or generate card advantage. Wiping out all of your own things is not something that you want to pay 12 mana to do. If mass removal is something you want, there are other cards for that, and the body is not enough to want to make allowances for.

Blue

AEthersnatch

An excellent new trick, that it only costs one less than Commandeer means that you only play this if you are looking for redundancy.

Gigantoplasm

In many ways, this mimics the Mimeoplasm. Its a copy of a creature that is also way larger than it normally would be. You have to spend actual mana to make it large though, so its not as powerful, but being monoblue opens up a significant amount of space where it could be inserted.

Illusory Ambusher

Yahowsa. This is expensive, but when it works you draw 5-10 cards easily. Cashing it in for 3-4 cards and killing an attacker is also totally fine. It works absurdly well in Nin for obvious reasons.

Mirror Match

A fog of the most hilarious variety, Mirror Match also lets you get all the value. You copy all the enter the battlefield effects, you generate lots of bodies for sacrifice outlets, and you kill any creature with power equal to or greater than its toughness. It does cost 6 so its easier to see coming than most tricks, but someone's eventually going to walk into it.

Mystic Confluence

Cryptic Command's cousin, Mystic Confluence functions in several different capacities. Its great at stopping permanents, spells, and digging into your deck. Except this to show up in any deck with blue mana.

Synthetic Destiny

Another way to get maximum value out of creatures, Synthetic Destiny is intended to be played in response to Wraths. I ditch all these things that were going to die anyway, here is my new army. The delay until end of turn makes it difficult to respond to what's going on for your opponents. If you just don't care about the dudes you have in play, its pretty easy to wait till the second main right before your turn to give everyone essentially a hasty surprise.

Black

Corpse Augur

Augur is a solid inclusion. He's risky, but the ability to choose which graveyard helps mitigate the risk of his mandatory trigger. Of course, there's a lot of competition for creatures that draw cards. Having 4 power puts him outside of Reveillark range, but recursion shouldn't be a problem in black. He's also solid anti-wrath technology. Ensure you get a refill as soon as your creatures die.

Daxos's Torment

This card is awful. A four mana 5/5 flying haste enchantment creature demon would have been bordering on ok. This is a couple steps removed from that. Its true that it doesn't die to wrath of god, but that's still relatively not useful. I was hoping there'd be a Constellation card in the deck to make that style worthwhile, but this is not that card. Avoid at all costs.

Deadly Tempest

A Wrath that punishes grow wide strategies, expect this in creature light decks like Oloro, or in metagames with high concentrations of Rhys, Darien, or Kemba.

Deadly Summons

A mill card that gives a strong payoff, this finds an immediate home in Geth and Sidisi. Geth loves the X in the mana cost, since Geth is one of the most powerful big mana decks. Sidisi loves it for the self-mill and extra zombies. It will find other homes as well, Lazav springs to mind.

Scourge of Nel Toth

Oh baby. Scourge is a big threat for little investment. A sacrifice outlet that's active from the graveyard, and a potent creature in play, Scourge does virtually everything that you want for a deck like Jarad, Mimeoplasm, etc. He'll mostly be found in B/G decks that love to have sacrificial food and large dudes, but he also can be found in the more specialized B/X decks such as Grimgrin and Vish Kal.

Thief of Blood

An interesting card, Thief instantly crushes planeswalkers and Ghave. It niche and expensive, but also incredibly powerful at what it does. I wouldn't include this willy nilly, since it does have some significant anti-synergy potential, but if you are in an area with lots of offending cards and need a broad answer to multiple different permanent types, Thief can fulfill that role. Its especially useful if you are running various tutors for creatures, eg Chord of Calling or Birthing Pod.

Wretched Confluence

While not as good as the Blue Confluence, Wretched Confluence is still plenty powerful. At worst its draw three at instant speed, and its also quite adept at saving your creatures from graveyard removal. It can be used to pick off multiple small creatures or go big on killing a large one. It notable that this removes indestructible creatures as well. I do think that this will see less play that the blue version since this has less overall utility, but its an option if you expect to have 5 mana you can leave up on other people's turns.

Red

Awaken the Sky Tyrant

The worst card in the set, Awaken is utterly miserable. Let me rewrite it for you:

Sky Tyrant 3R
Creature - Dragon
Defender, Shroud
When you are dealt damage by a source an opponent controls, Sky Tyrant loses Defender and Shroud.
5/5

That card is awful, and so is Awaken. It doesn't get hit by Wraths, but it also doesn't do anything unless your opponent does something first. Its trying to be a rattlesnake card, but it just doesn't do enough. No Mercy is a rattlesnake card. This is just a poor attempt at an undercosted creature. It also doesn't trigger when attacked, so you can't even block with the 5/5 token.

Dream Pillager

Pillager is an attempt at something new, and I applaud that. It does, I think, cost a bit too much for what it does. It also doesn't work well in conjunction with Haste. I'd like it in Kaalia, except you are just as likely to hit other 7 mana cards that you can't cast. I think there'll be homes for Pillager, I just can't think of any right now that simultaneously want a 7 mana dragon and can cast multiple cards from his trigger.

Magus of the Wheel

Magus set up an expectation of their being a cycle of Magi in the precons, which wasn't followed through. The card itself is quite good. Wheels are powerful in red and this one being recur-able through raise dead effects is certainly strong. That it costs additional mana to active is a bit awkward for me since that essentially changes the amount spent for the effect. Still, this is a good card that will see heavy play with how difficult it can be to get positive on cards in Monored.

Meteor Blast

Fixing the amount of damage and scaling targets is novel. I'm not sure how useful this will end up being. On the one hand, casting this on one target is 4 mana, thus a 4 mana 4 damage spell. Once you get above four targets, it'd probably have been better to cast Molten Disaster or Comet Storm. So its not that this is bad, it just a question of how much mana you want to pay. Obviously, in Mizzix its great since you don't want to kill your own stuff, and the cost reduction applies to X, letting you hit many more things than normal.

Mizzix's Mastery

Past in Flames for free is a powerful effect. Getting to 8 mana is difficult though. This is clearly a knockout for storm, but can also just be played in a deck that expects to get to 5RRR and have a decent number of spells in its graveyard. You can't cheat the Overload through the usual means of alternate costs since overload is itself and alternate cost. However reductions still apply to the overload, so you can get this down to RRR with Mizzix, Helm of Awakening, Ruby Medallion, etc.

Green

Arachnogenesis

Fogs are excellent in Commander, and one that lets you pick off opposing attackers while generating bodies are even better. This is like Mirror Match, but less powerful and cheaper. This fits into Rhys like a glove, and most other decks that want another fog beyond Constant Mists.

Bloodspore Thrinax

Bloodspore is like a monogreen Master Biomancer. It counts counters instead of just power, but its also only one color identity. It useful in Ghave or Marath, and also decent value in other less counter focused decks. It'd still only look to include it in a synergy heavy deck as it not the most efficient way of making your creatures larger.

Centaur Vinecrasher

On the surface Vinecrasher is what a green graveyard deck wants, especially Life From the Loam decks, but there are a number of problems. Mostly the problems are with the creature itself. Being enormous is not in itself useful, see Hammletback Goliath. The trample helps this immensely, but I'm still unsure how useful this is going to be overall. This one of the cards I'll need to play with to give a definitive answer, but I still think you should only include this if you are proactively putting lands in the graveyard for some reason instead of relying on lands to wind in the yard over the course of the game.

Ezuri's Predation

'Green-Wrath', Predation is excellent at catching you up from behind. It's very expensive, and won't solve all of your problems, but it does a good job of dealing with overloaded boards. 8 mana isn't terrible to get to in Green either. Expect this to show up quite a bit in ramp orient green decks that don't do too much while getting over seven mana.


Great Oak Guardian

Listed purely because it says 'Target player', GOG will see play as a political nightmare for the table. It does cost 6, but it can be used offensively, so that not too worrying. I don't think I'd play it often, but its nice for people looking for combat tricks on a budget.

Pathbreaker Ibex

Craterhoof's younger cousin, the goat will be breaking people's faces. It really wants to be combined with haste, so look for this in G/R shells. That's not to say it won't be played elsewhere, because it certainly will be. A lot. In format of 40 life where you have to deal 80-120 damage to win, effects like the Ibex or Crafterhoof are priceless for letting you multiply your damage so high as to win the game in a turn.

Skullwinder

An Eternal Witness that effects two players probably would have been good enough on its own. One that has Deathtouch and costs 2G over 1GG is definitely worthwhile. Skullwinder is great in virtually every deck with green mana as a literal rattlesnake that comes with value. Its worth noting that you can target someone with no cards in their graveyard and it still works, meaning that sometimes this is a true E.Witness.

Verdant Confluence

At worst this is a triple rampant growth. Nissa's Pilgrimage just came out and its seen play, so Verdant Confluence is at least even there. However, instead of gaining 7 life, the confluence gives you other options. Regrowing permanents and +1/+1 counters are useful modes. I expect this to take over the Pilgrimage slots immediately unless triple rampant growth is something a madman wants twice.


Artifacts and lands

Blade of Selves

Blade of Selves is an exciting cards. It provides excellent value with enter or leaves play effects and also enables a number of combos, like Yosei or Kokusho. Its expensive to equip, but its definitely worth it. Imagine it on a Craterhoof or even something as simple as a Man-O-War? If your deck has creatures to attack with, Blade is probably great for you.

Sandstone Oracle

Useful in Red and White decks as a way to catch-up on cards. 7 mana is quite a bit to get to normally, but is mitigated by the enters the battlefield effect not being limited to cast by hand. This means that red's Trash for Treasure effects can recur it and White's reanimate effects can get it back early. I don't think this is worth it in blue, black, or green since they can draw cards more efficiently. The exception might be Sharuum since its an artifact for her enters the battlefield effect.

Thought Vessel

Making Reliquary Tower into a 2 mana artifact is a good move given how many decks play reliquary tower. This will see widespread play and is a solid if unexciting card.

Command Beacon

This is a crazy card. When paired with Crucible/Life From the Loam, its a way to get around the tax indefinitely. You have to jump through enough hoops that its not that big a deal, but having the option to skip the tax is potentially extremely powerful for decks that rely on their commander.

Omnath

The new Omnath has garnered the most attention for Commander of the Battle For Zendikar legends. This is unsurprising. The original Omnath is a favorite among mono-green players and the new version is objectively quite strong. Its an expensive card, but expensive cards that reward you for playing large amounts of ramp are some of the best Commanders. Omnath v2.0 is fantastic at creating an obscene amount of threat quickly. Play him with a land drop still up and it can be 15 power instantly. He also has built in wrath protection with his death trigger. The Bolt trigger doesn't care how the elementals die either, giving you proactive Aristocrats style options for the deck as well. There isn't quite enough room for a deck to maximize both triggers.  Having enough land after getting to 7 mana implies at least 40 land in the deck. So for this week, I did something I've never done before and made two lists, one for lands and one for elementals. They share a significant number of cards that I can talk about together, then I'll go into their differences.

The basis of both deck's is to get Omnath into play. However, they have different timings for when Omnath needs to be in play. For the Landfall version, its imperative to get Omnath into play as fast as possible. The deck is built to maximize his landfall trigger and needs to have him in play to function. Because of this, the Landfall deck runs more land. Importantly, it runs more basic lands as a hedge to ensure it can still be fetching lands after you get to seven mana. While the Elemental version runs 38 land, it doesn't mind waiting a bit longer to put Omnath onto the battlefield. The Elemental version is attempting to take advantage of his second trigger and get tons of free lightning bolts. If you play Omnath and have no elementals in play already, that plan isn't as solid. The Elemental version shifted costs down a bit and doesn't race for seven mana quite as hard. It's still a ramp deck, but not as much of one.

Landfall  - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/25-10-15-omnath/

Elementals - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/30-10-15-omnath-elementals/


These cards form the core of both decks.

The Mana:

The Payoffs:

Support:

This is the core of both decks. It gives a picture of ramping into huge threats and drawing tons of cards. Making tokens is a core part of both decks. Doubling Season effects give you so much additional value from Omnath that you can't help but be excited to draw them. This is a deck that plans to win through regular old damage, and thus needs to be able to deal 120+ damage of the course of the game. For any deck that wants to end the game with attacking, Craterhoof is your best pal. Craterhoof's cohorts, Avenger of Zendikar and Regal Force, are both elementals that work well with the deck's plan.  Titania is of particular note since she also produces 5 power elemental tokens and works well with fetchlands.

Now that we've seen the similarities, where do the two decks diverge?

The Landfall version:

The Landfall version goes all in on the trigger including running Thieves' Auction. While the printed text on it doesn't indicate this, the oracle wording of Thieve's Auction exiles all  This version is similar in nature to Borborygmos Enraged lists, though it has a much greater focus on the board than on lands to hand. Cards like Storm Cauldron and Scryb Ranger give you the ability to continually proc Omnath, even if you run out of lands in your deck. That's obviously unlikely, but the possibility exists. I have omitted Horn of Greed largely because this deck needs to play out over many turns. I'm leaning on rampant growth effects for most of the Landfall shenanigans instead of Exploration type ramp. Horn is one of the best ways to keep Exploration active, but Horn is much less useful if you aren't pushing extra land plays, and can give your opponents more cards than you. If you are Exploring, then you usually get 2 cards per turn off the Horn, so you are behind by a card against three opponents. That's acceptable. Being behind by 2 cards a turn over 4-5 turns is not acceptable. I also omitted off color fetchlands from the mana base purely for cost reasons. Fetchlands are obviously bonkers with Omnath and if you have some extra cash I would spring for them.

The Elemental version:

The Elemental version focuses on sacrifice outlets and on-death triggers. Of particular note is Hostility, which makes Elemental tokens. There are relatively few ways to take advantage of Hostility's ability in the deck, and that aspect might want to be explored further in later iterations. Hostility + Vigor make an excellent pairing. Even if you don't have Vigor, the Earthquake effects can act as additional sacrifice outlets. Also, another bit of errata, Firecat Blitz makes Elemental Cat tokens. You have to manually eat them, but its a significant amount of bang for your buck.

Though the decks are only 20 cards apart, they're going to play very differently. The Landfall deck is going to play like most default EDH decks, ramp into large threats. The Elemental deck is going to play like Ghave or Prossh. Lots of little value dudes that you eat to generate even more value till you snowball your advantage.


I might finish up the BFZ legends next week with Ulamog, or I might go straight into the Commander 2015 legends. It depends on how complete their spoiler is.

Cheers!

Zada Storm

     

   
         I was a bit trepidatious about Zada. While her ability is obviously powerful, there seemed like there would be one deck for her. Play her with lots of token makers and targeted buffs. A curious thing happened though. The deck took on a new direction while I was doing my research. The lists I was combing looked to me like Storm. Storm is a pretty ambitious endeavor in EDH even though Red has been a part of Storm in Modern/Legacy for a while now. Monored Storm hasn't really been viable due to the lack of card flow. Zada solves this problem while amplifying the damage of various cards to convert your hand into a kill.

Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zada-storm-3/
Bullshit Scale: 4

        This is perhaps the most volatile list I've ever put forth. Doing some testing with tappedout's goldfish mode, the deck is capable of some explosive draws, but will fail mid-combo about 25% of the time. There are better card choices that I haven't thought of yet, so that could probably be improved with time. I put the deck at a 4 purely because its a dedicated combo deck. It has a linchpin that targeted removal will kill, so its far more open to interaction than most combo decks, but its perceived nature will earn it significant rancor at random tables.

       There are a number of things going on here so I'm going to go through them piece by piece stating with Mana.

The Mana

        Getting to a critical mass of mana is vitally important in Storm. You need fuel and you need it all for one turn. EDH is traditionally about building up over a couple of turns with Rampant Growths or artifact mana. While artifact mana is welcome in Storm, in this sort of deck the artifact does need to make more mana than it costs. A significant fraction of the deck is mana since you need to achieve a threshold for the combo turn. Ruby Medallion and Helm of Awakening are both extremely useful, acting as multiple mana during a turn. Spawning Breath pulls semi-double duty. Unfortunately, the 1 damage is going to kill most of the tokens in the deck provided there hasn't already been a buff thrown down. As just a colorless ritual for the number of creatures in play it seems solid, and at its worst doesn't decrease the number of bodies you have. The tribal synergies are important, though, so only use it when you need some amount of mana and having Goblins doesn't matter as much.

The Velocity

        The other important aspect of Storm is that it needs to be going though the deck at an accelerated pace. This is traditionally why monored Storm has been difficult.With such a limited selection of cantrips and card velocity spells, achieving the density required for something like a Storm combo turn has been virtually impossible. This is where Zada comes in. Zada's ability turns your single card cantrips into net positive draw spells as long as you can control more than one creature. Her ability also functions as a way to win the game in a single turn since Crimson Wisps into Blazing Shoal and other pump spells is lethal. Wheel of Fate is included because its a free spell for Storm count and it lets us play out our whole hand before getting a new one. It is not ideal. Wheel is telegraphed and it can't be flashed back by Recoup or Past In Flames. However, its still one of the best options for a massive draw effect.

       Gamble is of particular importance. Red has virtually no tutors, which is one of the reasons that this deck has way more variance than any Storm list with Black or Blue. Its normally safe to Gamble, since generally you'll be Gambling in the early turns from whatever you are missing, and Gambling mid-combo almost always involves Past In Flames in some capacity. Past In Flames is absurdly good. It essentially doubles the number of spells that you have access to, which makes recasting things like Battle Hymn much more effective after the first Empty has gone off.

The Bodies

        Unlike other storm decks, Zada wants to have lots of bodies. The more creatures you have, the better your card draw and pump spells scale. However, since Brightstone Ritual, Krenko, and Empty the Warrens exist, I focused on Goblins as a tribal sub-theme. Its also important for Mana Echoes that the creatures share a tribe as much as possible. Young Pyromancer is great on his own and grows his elementals without any real support required. I am unconvinced about Rapacious One and Ogre Battledriver. Ogre Battledriver is a four mana creature that needs to be in play before the combo starts, which makes him compete directly with Zada. Zada wins that fight. Rapacious One has a similar issue in that six mana is so much for this deck. He also needs to attack and connect to get the juicy Spawn mana/bodies. He has a much greater upside than Battledriver, but odds are the deck will just never get to cast him. I'm not sure what I'd replace them with, probably more cheap creatures. I think the deck needs a density of bodies that hasn't quite been reached yet.

The Kill

        I like building Storm lists because they push you in abnormal directions. Your intuition is off since Storm plays such a different game. One thing that remains constant though, you have to make your opponent dead. In EDH that's a tall order since there's 80-120 life to deal with. For a deck that wants to attack to kill everyone, and do it in one turn, that's ludicrous. Zada can pull it off though. Any pump spell gets multiplied by the number of creatures you can attack with, which makes damage pile up fast. Of course, Ignite Memories can be devastating as well since people routinely play 7-10 mana spells in the format, but relying on that is dubious. Much better to just attack for insane amounts of damage. Haze of Rage shines here. It also scales with the number of creatures, and the number of spells, and has buyback. It can be a one card victory condition. Grapeshot makes an appearance, but its mostly for clearing creatures out of the way. The rest are just efficient pump spells, getting the most damage per mana spent. Reckless Charge and Uncanny Speed are fantastic. That they give Haste is notable, given that the deck really needs to kill in one turn. I think it might be worthwhile to include some additional mass evasion cards to ensure the team makes it through for the same reason. I'm currently unsure what that would be, but the forerunner in my mind is Eldrazi Monument. Akroma's Memorial might be better overall, but it does cost 7 versus monument's 5. It also doesn't protect versus as much. Monument is also better in the event you have to pass the turn without everyone dead.

        Its worth noting that you can pull off a percentage of the combo at instant speed, surprising people after blocks with tons of damage.  Most of the time though, the deck operates at sorcery speed. Temur Battle Rage can kill at instant speed, but the real heavy lifters are Final Fortune and Seize the Day. Each gives additional attack steps, though Final Fortune has ways more applications than just additional attacks. Frequently it can be used to have an extra combo turn without interruption. If you can sculpt a hand and board so that the next turn is a sure thing, it essentially wins the game. Seize the Day is a fantastic way to multiply your pump spells an additional time or two. The math for each pump spell becomes +N power x Number of creatures x Number of attack steps. Plugging in 3 for each variable makes it 27 damage. Its actually not that hard to kill people, if you can get to that point.

Lands

        The land count is low. A paltry 30 lands. While good EDH decks with lots of ramp tend to run fewer lands and lean on artifact mana and Rampant Growth effects, Zada has a different reason to run as few lands as possible. Simply, drawing lands mid-combo severely hampers your ability to win the game. Every land is a dud. So the fewer the lands, the more hits from the card drawing spells. The mana base takes some risks, Dwarven Ruins and Sandstone Needle are going to be sacrificed usually before you can be certain that the combo is going to work. That's just part of the game though. This is a deck that has to go for it big. About the only land I didn't include that I maybe should have was Crystal Vein. I do think that its worth considering, but colorless mana has a lot less value to it than Red mana. The other option is to run more cycling lands, but their cost in enters the battlefield tapped lands is not worth paying since there are already an number of them above.

Powering Up

       There's actually not that much that I can suggest here. I do like the idea of having more ways to get the attackers through to ensure the kill turn actually kills people. I rejected the various mana doublers like Gauntlet of Might since there are so few lands in the deck, and I think you get more upside by including nonbasics than getting to play the doublers. If the deck was built the other way, with 32ish mountains and zero nonbasics, the doublers and Koth would be included. The various other Red Planeswalkers are of middling value. I could see them, but their mana cost is 4+ on all of them, which makes them much harder to play mid-combo. Of them, Daretti and this Chandra are the most likely to get played.

Conclusion

This deck was a blast to build. Zada exceeded my expectations. If you like explosive high variance Red decks then I would seriously give Zada a look. The deck is also much cheaper than anticipated. Though the few expensive cards, Gamble, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, etc, are important. Once you get past the first few though, the average cost drops like a rock.

I'll be back next week with more Battle for Zendikar legends. Only two left, and they're both Giant Monsters!

Cheers!

Drana

In pondering what to do with Drana, I started looking around edhrec.com and mtgsalvation.com. I was pretty stuck. All of the decks that I saw on edhrec were vampire tribal...and there's no lists in the database at all on mtgsalvation. So, I decided to focus on the ability rather than Drana being an ally or a vampire. There are not that many monoblack creatures that care about +1/+1 counters except as a stat boost. While I liked the idea of build a Suicide Black style deck, it didn't seem as interesting as actually using the ability in a relevant way. There are piles of artifact creatures that use +1/+1 counters as a resource. That looked like a way to use Drana's ability profitably. As such, the core of the deck is artifact creatures with abilities like Modular.

Decklist - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/12-10-15-EGK-drana/
Bullshit rating - 3

The core of the deck:

The modular creatures necessitate that the deck is mostly constructed of artifact creatures, but the pay offs of Triskelion, Hanagerback Walker, Pentavus, and Triskelivus are more than worthwhile when also used in combination with Drana's ability. Adding proliferate is another way to continue the counter action if Drana is incapacitated. One of Drana's strengths is her low cost, so I don't anticipate her being out of the action for long. Still, its good to have back ups.

These creatures are rather good at gumming up the ground and generating incremental advantage. The card draw suite I chose reflects how the deck wants to play.

I do think the deck could use something like Damnable Pact. However, there's a lot here to love. Mind Stone is with the card draw since that's more its function than acceleration. In combination with Junk Diver and Myr Retriever, it can generate significant velocity.While not technically drawing cards, the Diver and the Myr can do some pretty spectacular plays with Ashnod's Altar and Krark-Clan Ironworks. I omitted Necropotence for several reasons. Since the removal suite includes All Is Dust and Ugin, having colored permanents makes those effects less one sided. The deck doesn't have significant life gain to offset Necro's draw back, and the triple black is surprisingly annoying in a deck that wants to get away with as much utility in its mana base as possible.

There's some specific ramp options that this deck can take advantage of, like Workhorse, Metalworker, and Krark-Clan Ironworks. The other options are pretty generically good, though Everflowing Chalice does extra work with the proliferate that's in the deck. The vast majority of the cards in the deck are colorless so paying extra to generate black mana is largely pointless. As such, the deck just plays the best cost to mana produced ratio.

These are just some great utility cards. Exsanguinate can be a game winner, and frequently will help replenish the health paid in other effects. Eldrazi Monument and Soul of New Phyrexia are both solid ways of protecting the board. The other option is Darksteel Forge, though I somewhat dislike it since I'd have to pay retail for it. Mikaeus is obviously a combo outlet and lets the deck steal games it would otherwise definitely lose. The same goes for Mephidross Vampire. 

Like any deck, removal is important. Black is however, terrible at dealing with artifacts and enchantments. So much so that I'm essentially ignoring them. Ugin and All Is Dust do a great job of clearing up the board of permanents, and the rest deal with problem creatures. 

It wouldn't be black without tutors. I tried to keep them minimal so as to reduce the consistency. The deck is going to be consistent with a 3 mana general already. No need to add to that too much. These are classic black tutors, well maybe not Increasing Ambition. However, that card is only a mana more than Diabolic Tutor and the colorless to black conversion might actually make Ambition easier to cast in a deck loaded with colorless acceleration. 

The lands are pretty straightforward. I do think there's room for more utility, however, wanting to have BB on turn three every game is going to hamper the number of colorless lands the deck can realistically play. I think upon reflection that the Crypt isn't correct and going forward would replace it with a Mortuary Mire.

Powering Up:

Mana Crypt/Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith/Voltaic Key - Powerhouses of acceleration, the first two are a bit too pricey to just throw into a deck willy-nilly. If you have them they are perfect. Key has powerful utility with the theme. Key works with the artifact acceleration to power out threats early. However, it wasn't included in the main deck since Key needs a mass of the cheaper acceleration and electing not to play Crypt and the Monoliths would have left it feeling anemic. 

Army of the Damned/Endrek Sahr/Spawning Pit/Tombstone Stairwell - There was some thought to including these types of token makers. They feel somewhat out of place. The various artifacts that replenish themselves to make tokens forever with Drana feel significantly more powerful. If you find that you want more token action, these are all solid options, and the threat of having an army in a can is a good one to have in the face of decks with lots of sweepers. 

Smothering Abomination/Dark Prophecy - With the number of tokens that can be cycled through or sacrificed to Ashnod's Altar/Krark-Clan Ironworks, these could be used to draw an absurd number of cards. Dark Prophecy had the problem I had with Necropotence of being triple black and a colored permanent, but on the other side doesn't lock you out of your draw step. Smothering Abomination is the best of both worlds. It has no life cost, is a creature itself for Drana pumps, and its colorless for All Is Dust/Ugin. Abomination is more narrow since it only works on sacrifice, but there's plenty of that in the deck. Include if you want to make the deck more consistently combo.

Kozilek/Ulamog 1/Ulamog 2/It That Betrays - These large colorless threats could be used to push away from a combo finish, but I had a couple problems with the colorless Eldrazi. First, they don't actually absorb too much of the artifact synergies. Second, they are a bit too high on the mana curve. This deck can generate a lot of mana through Cabal Coffers and the artifact mana, but its aiming for 7-8, not 10-12. That makes it unlikely for the Eldrazi to show up early. I do think that having one of the original titans, specifically Koziliek, would be great to go long with as anti-milling tech and a constant threat of being able to refill your hand. 

The deck turned out much better than I expected. I might try to play this one in real life. 

Thank you all for reading the article and look for Zada coming next Monday! Cheers!